Ethiopia
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Background:
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Unique among African countries, the
ancient Ethiopian monarchy maintained its freedom
from colonial rule, one exception being the Italian
occupation of 1936-41. In 1974 a military junta, the
Derg, deposed Emperor Haile SELASSIE (who had ruled
since 1930) and established a socialist state. Torn
by bloody coups, uprisings, wide-scale drought, and
massive refugee problems, the regime was finally
toppled by a coalition of rebel forces, the
Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF),
in 1991. A constitution was adopted in 1994 and
Ethiopia's first multiparty elections were held in
1995. A two and a half year border war with Eritrea
ended with a peace treaty on 12 December 2000. Final
demarcation of the boundary is currently on hold due
to Ethiopian objections to an international
commission's finding requiring it to surrender
sensitive territory. |
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Location:
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Eastern Africa, west of Somalia
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Land boundaries:
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total:
5,328 km
border countries: Djibouti 349 km, Eritrea
912 km, Kenya 861 km, Somalia 1,600 km, Sudan 1,606
km |
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Coastline:
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0 km (landlocked) |
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Geography - note:
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landlocked - entire coastline along
the Red Sea was lost with the de jure independence
of Eritrea on 24 May 1993; the Blue Nile, the chief
headstream of the Nile by water volume, rises in
T'ana Hayk (Lake Tana) in northwest Ethiopia; three
major crops are believed to have originated in
Ethiopia: coffee, grain sorghum, and castor bean
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Population:
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67,851,281
note: estimates for this country explicitly
take into account the effects of excess mortality
due to AIDS; this can result in lower life
expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates,
lower population and growth rates, and changes in
the distribution of population by age and sex than
would otherwise be expected (July 2004 est.)
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Ethnic groups:
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Oromo 40%, Amhara and Tigre 32%,
Sidamo 9%, Shankella 6%, Somali 6%, Afar 4%, Gurage
2%, other 1% |
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Religions:
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Muslim 45%-50%, Ethiopian Orthodox
35%-40%, animist 12%, other 3%-8% |
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Languages:
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Amharic, Tigrinya, Oromigna,
Guaragigna, Somali, Arabic, other local languages,
English (major foreign language taught in schools)
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Literacy:
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definition:
age 15 and over can read and write
total population: 42.7%
male: 50.3%
female: 35.1% (2003 est.) |
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Flag description:
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three equal horizontal bands of green
(top), yellow, and red with a yellow pentagram and
single yellow rays emanating from the angles between
the points on a light blue disk centered on the
three bands; Ethiopia is the oldest independent
country in Africa, and the three main colors of her
flag were so often adopted by other African
countries upon independence that they became known
as the pan-African colors |
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Currency:
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birr (ETB) |
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Currency code:
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ETB |
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Exchange rates:
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birr per US dollar - NA (2003), 8.57
(2002), 8.46 (2001), 8.22 (2000), 7.94 (1999)
note: since 24 October 2001 exchange rates
are determined on a daily basis via interbank
transactions regulated by the Central Bank
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